McNeese State University

Call to Order
TJ Moore called the meeting to order at 2:39pm. Members present were TJ Moore,
Clayton Moreau, John O’Donnell, Morgan Verrette, Dr. Nikos Kiritsis, Dr. Todd Furman and Mike Graham. Others in attendance were Patrick Eustis, Shannon Davis and Brenda Gallow. Members absent were Raphiel Heard, Tim Rye, Bill Mungai and Chad Thibodeau.

Minutes
TJ Moore approved the 19OCT07 minutes by acclamation.

CITO Update
Mike Graham reported there is $1,405,498 dollars in the TASC account, of which the breakdown is for personnel dollars (i.e…no more than 25% of the available total, the majority of which must be student money; primarily for CoTASCO salary, student labor and the helpdesk) with the rest of the money going into equipment and operating. Additionally, Mike said what’s not here is the funds that should be generated for the Spring Semester which is approx. $557,000 increasing the account to roughly
$2 million dollars.

Mike Graham reviewed each of the items listed on the handout:
Mike said there is still $88,000 from Chemistry as well as a couple of other little projects (Unfinished Orders from last year) that has not yet been spent. So there is still approx. $130,000 outstanding from last year’s approved funding that has not been spent.

Mike Graham asked the committee if they still want to do Dial Up. He said there are still students asking for it. The cost is $87,000 and there is approx. 3-months left before renewal is due. There was some discussion and questions from the committee members concerning the number of students actually using as compared to the cost per student. Dr. Nikos suggested turning half of the modems off. The committee liked this idea and agreed to turn all but 50 modems off and see what the response is before making a final decision about the Dial Up service.

Mike Graham informed the committee the PCs in both Holbrook and the Library will be at the end of their 3-year cycle at the end of this semester. He said according to the constitution those are supposed to both stay on a 3-year rotation so they have very little problems and function very well. Mike said the cost of $142,500 is based on our website for a PC1 and PC2 purchase. Within the next 30-40 days the university will buy approx. 200-250 computers. If TASC adds their purchase of 100 at the same time this will increase purchase to approx 350. We are also timing purchase with the University of Louisiana System which will take the total up to about 1,500 machines that can be done all at once. Mike said this will allow the cost to drop and TASC could save 20% of their money if the committee authorizes the purchase now.

Mike Graham said the cost for the Portal Maintenance (and part of the Oracle License) is roughly $75,000. The other half will be picked up by the university. Mike informed the committee the university’s total cost for Banner/SCT is about a quarter million dollars a year for the maintenance.

Mike Graham said because of the way the budget works, we need to leave the Summer Carry Over cost of $100,000 (at a minimum) to have enough money to operate (i.e salaries and anything that comes up).

Mike Graham said he asked the committee for 3-years to pick up the cost for blackboard licensing with the expectation that we would get to Moodle, but that has not gone as well as hoped for, so in order for the Enterprise version of Blackboard to work with the Portal, Mike requested $40,000 for another year.

And finally, Mike requested $20,000 to renew the anti-virus for TASC machines.

Before presenting a demo of the Portal with Zimbra, Mike explained there was an integrated calendar and mail package that originally came as part of the Portal but the package was not as good as what he wanted to provide the students. Consequently, Mike said thru university funds entirely, we bought Zimbra, paying for the licensing and everything else. Zimbra is open sourced. It has an integrated calendar and mail system that works very much like Outlook and Exchange. In order to get Zimbra integrated into the Portal, there will be hours required to make it work. Mike said he would be using it with his staff first, and if the committee wants to integrate it entirely, there will be a cost of $118,000. Mike said if the committee does not want to pay for it he understands, but the university will still go with Zimbra. There was some discussion during the demo and Mike projected the Portal to be up and running by the Spring Semester. He said training would begin the second week in November all day and night for 2-weeks.

Mike Graham said he would proceed with the Internet Café if the committee was still comfortable with it. He confirmed the money has been set aside for this and is included in the $160,000 set aside for Unfinished Orders last year. TJ asked the committee if they still wanted to proceed with the Internet Café. Committee agreed.

The committee confirmed they voted to set aside $50,000 per college and $50,000 for other departments at a previous meeting. TJ Moore asked the committee what date to set for proposals to be turned in. Mike suggested the end of the semester due to Shannon’s departure. Mike does not want equipment arriving to quickly with no one to deal with it. Dr. Furman motioned to accept Friday, the 3rd week of the Spring Semester as the cut off date for proposals. John O’Donnell seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Mike Graham asked the committee if they wanted to gather ideas for bigger projects.
Mike also said he will come back to the committee with the official budget for their approval.

Dr. Furman motioned to approve $142,500 for the updating of the computers in Holbrook and TASC Labs. Clay Moreau seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Dr. Furman motioned to approve $40,000 to fund Blackboard for another year.
Clay Moreau seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Dr. Furman motioned to approve $20,000 to renew the Anti-Virus contracts.
Clay Moreau seconded. The committee voted to approve and motion carries.

Mike Graham again thanked Shannon Davis for his service. Mike said he will start the search for Shannon’s replacement very soon and asked if anyone wants to participate in the search to let him know today.

Old Business
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New Business
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CoTASCO Update
Shannon reported both printers are working. TJ remarked how impressed he is with the printers.

There was a short discussion on the TASC inventory. Shannon commented there is a very detailed list of TASC equipment. Dr. Nikos suggested giving each department a list pertaining to their area to help TASC locate equipment at inventory time. Dr. Nikos also suggested turning over used TASC equipment to departments after 5 years to relieve TASC of having such a huge inventory.

Adjournment
Clayton Moreau motioned to adjourn the meeting and Dr. Todd Furman seconded.
The committee voted to approve and the meeting was adjourned at 3:28p.m.

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